


A Frog By Any Other Name

by timahina



Series: Predator Week 2019 [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Frog Prince Fusion, F/M, Predatorshipping Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 15:06:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18943417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timahina/pseuds/timahina
Summary: Serena has always had a fascination with tending to various gardens and one day finds a new addition in her little plot of land.





	A Frog By Any Other Name

There was a routine to watering her plants. Every morning she would wake up at the crack of dawn to tend to the farm, to milk the cows and gather eggs and kneed the bread. The hard labor of the morning was always so slow, and Serena would count the seconds ticking away at the clock until the clock struck twelve. That was when the others would take over the activities on the farm and she could spend her day doing as she pleased.

A benefit of being an early riser and efficient one at that.

But she would immediately dash to her garden – one she had spent a few years now carefully crafting and tending to. It wasn’t a vegetable garden, no, there was already a few of those. A spice garden and a vegetable garden and one for lettuce and cabbage patches. No, this one was of her own creation. One of leisure filled with plants that were there for pure aesthetic and beauty.

Serena gathered seeds of different flowers and plants and bushes, carefully crafting her own little oasis.

And today, there was an intruder in her oasis. A frog had leapt into the pond and she stared at the frog, pouting heavily. “Hey, I didn’t give you any such permission to be here.” Serena raised her hand, wagging her finger at the frog who simply stared back, croaking at her as he hopped out of the pond and in front of her. It was such a strange colored frog, purple and pink and bright… it was probably poisonous. Or venomous, she wasn’t certain what it was, but she needed this frog away from her.

The frog croaked again.

“You better not be the start of a pest invasion. I don’t think I can afford any poisons.” That and they might damage her poor plants. Their lush colors could fade and distort from the introduction of a new element. Serena sighed, laying on her back on the grass and closed her eyes, enjoying hearing the wind rustling through her carefully crafted bushes and the sweet scent of flowers swirled around her. Peace, tranquility.

_Croak!_

Serena opened her eyes, feeling a slop on her chest and raised her head up, her chin on her chest as she saw the frog sitting atop of her breast and she groaned. “My boob isn’t a pillow.”

“Obviously not. Nor is it big enough – subpar at best.”

Serena screamed, flaying her hands around to search for a gardening tool as she sat up. The frog, it talked! It spoke! Said words! Insulting words at that! Serena grabbed onto a gardening hoe and stood up to her feet, brandishing it as a weapon as she held the metal end to where the frog was. And the frog simply stared at her with wide violet eyes. “Did you speak?!”

“… no.” Serena swung the hoe down as fast as she could, but the frog quickly hopped onto the wooden part of the hoe, near the metal. It waved its two front legs, as though motioning for her to stop. “Wait a moment, I need you to do me a favor!” She swung the hoe again, even more wildly this time. Each time, the frog begged for her to stop which only served to increase her ire against him. The swings were harder to avoid each time and she was very good at aiming, near brushes of death each time.

It wasn’t until he hopped onto a small bed of blue flowers did Serena stop, the hoe raised over her head and her breathing heavy, her chest heaved up and down and her eyes intently focused. “Get off my hydrangeas!”

She wasn’t swinging at him. The frog scooted himself deeper, burring into the flowers and was distinct against them. “No, this is actually comfy. I can’t remember the last time I saw such pretty flowers. This is all rather well-kept.”

“And you are _ruining_ them.”

“Ah- _ah_ ,” he wagged a finger or at least as close as a frog could wag, with a condescending tone, “I’m not the one waving around a weapon and leaving imprints all over what looks to be a fine garden.”

She shook her head; why was she arguing with a frog? The frog was talking – complimenting her garden. And he had a point, she was ruining the grass that wrecked her back for weeks as she was crouched over and plucking weeds out one by one. Serena’s eyes softened as she gazed upon the damage she had done to her precious oasis. It was nothing that a few patches couldn’t fix but still, it was pristine with not a grass blade out of place. And if she kept going, fighting with a talking frog, it would only end up worse. With an exasperated sigh, Serena placed the hoe down and plopped down to her knees. “Wha… what _are_ you?”

The frog hopped out of the hydrangea bed and in front of her, standing up on its hind legs. The image was enough to send such a nauseating chill down her spine. “Not a what, but a _who_ , for I am Prince Yuri of-” He hadn’t the time to finish his introduction before she was already clutching her sides in a fit of laughter, loud and obnoxious. “I am a Prince!”

“You’re a frog!”

Yuri huffed; she was indeed just a country bumpkin. “I can be both…” Though he was certain those who resided in the countryside were more susceptible to superstition and that whole lot. He shouldn’t have needed to explain. “I am a Prince and-”

“If you’re a Prince,” she interrupted and lowered herself further, laying down completely on her front and resting her chin on her forearms, “then what are you doing here? Why are you a frog? Don’t Princes live in big castles?”

He was blessed that he was a frog and that their slime-excreting skins worked differently than humans otherwise the heat of embarrassment would have revealed itself so plainly. “I… I was kidnapped and cursed.”

“Seems like an awful lot of trouble to kidnap someone just to curse them.” She poked his belly, squirming at feeling the slime on the tip of her finger and he grimaced, hopping back a step. “Was this for ransom?”

“I don’t know.”

“Revenge?”

“I don’t know.”

“Spite?”

“I. Don’t. Know!”

She wouldn’t let him speak. Before, she was too busy trying to massacre him with the gardening hoe and now bombarding him with questions before he finished his tale. Yuri placed his hand over his heart – at least, where he thought his heart should be, it was where it was when he was human. “The point is, I… I _humbly_ request a kiss from you, farm maiden.” Serena raised a brow and it was as he thought, complete disbelief. Again… country bumpkins should easily follow this logic. But no, he was forced to continue. He hopped closer to her, laying a webbed foot upon her arm. “The petty wizard that cursed me – he made it where I could transform to my original state by kissing a pure maiden.”

And he assumed she was pure.

She had to be.

No one brandishing a hoe against a frog so violently had a love life. And judging from how she cared about the garden, how quickly she stopped attacking him the moment he hid within the flowers and how she worried for the damage she caused – he was certain she had no such suitors. A perfect opportunity.

But Serena could only stare at him, unsure of what to make of this. Stories of talking animals were common among these parts but those were usually about the devil appearing with some sort of deal. The frog had yet to offer her any such deal. He merely asked for one thing, humbly even. Though he had to be if he really was cursed.

But he could also be tricking her.

The unnatural colors around him – they stood out in her lush, green garden. And she remembered red frogs that had infiltrated the pond before; how quickly the predators and surrounding animals quickly abandoned their dwelling. All it took as for one animal to try and eat one of the brightly colored frogs and they immediately dropped dead. Like this frog, they were sticky. And the slime was nothing but poison. She could easily die from this.

“Hm… and what do I get for kissing you? I mean, you can’t get something for nothing. And how do I know you’re not lying to me, Yuri – if that’s your _real_ name.”

 _Prince Yuri,_ he wanted to correct her. He scowled and huffed indignantly. “I am a Prince! Ask me for whatever you’d like, I will grant it – whether it be the moon, the stars, a bigger farm, better boobs, anything you wish! But only _after_ you kiss me. I am powerless like this.”

Serena again poked at his belly; the slime was worse than before – as though the excretion had increased. She didn’t want to know why or how that was possible. But what to ask the prince? A bigger farm?

No, her mornings would bleed into the afternoons and she’d never have a chance to tend to her gardens. The only time left would be nighttime, an awful time and her poor plants would quickly die from neglect and starvation.

The moon and stars were not so helpful for what she wanted, and she wasn’t about to acknowledge his dig at her breasts again.

“Can… can you provide me a bigger garden?” Yuri tilted his head, not understanding her request. Serena sighed, twiddling her fingers together. “I… I wasn’t granted much room of my own, the bushes here are the boundaries. As you can see, it’s…”

Too small.

Much too small.

The little corners were enough for the colorful little poppies, but the hydrangeas required room and different soil. For the land she was given and the tools she had nearby, Serena did well for herself in creating a cute little garden. But yes, it was small. And her desire was something bigger to tend and take care of. This was not for a business, not such a small plot of land.

No, this was her hobby.

She was merely a farm maiden who took up gardening for her spare time. And she was good at it. And to find herself before a prince, all she desired was perhaps another acre to work and toil away at something so fleeting.

“Fine then, I shall grant you a garden.”

She could die upon kissing him. But in the service for a bigger garden, to give her motivation to set about her chores for another day… that was well worth it. Serena sat up, holding her hands out for Yuri who jumped right aboard her waiting embrace. She raised her hands up, holding the frog prince right to her face. She grimaced, shutting her eyes tight. If she didn’t think about it, maybe it wouldn’t be so gross.

So she plunged forward with puckered lips and kissed the frog, feeling the slime against her lips and whined, pulling back as fast as she could. Her hands suddenly felt warm, much too warm to the point of scorching as the frog jumped out of her embrace and a swirling light surrounded him until a Prince clad in fineries stood in front of her in the center of her small garden.

Colorful clothing and smooth violet hair, his eyes bright and vibrant.

Oh, she was certain she was beyond death. Kissing the frog had indeed killed her. She died and gone to heaven, probably.

The Prince knelt down in front of her, taking advantage of her momentary stunned silence and took hold of her hand, lifting it up to his lips and placed a kiss upon her as she did unto him. “My, you took me at my word and kissed a disgusting frog? You are brave, farm maiden. What’s your name?”

“S-Serena.”

He was going to grant her garden though some royal decree now. Or give her money from a pouch, enough to buy and settle upon her own land, to plant the flowers she wished.

“Ah, farm maiden Serena… come to my palace. The gardens there are a wonder.” A royal gardener? That’s what he was giving her? Serena bit her lip, fumbling and trying not to reveal how eager she was. She nodded; surely the prince would give her a decent wage. And have much more flowers, new and exotic plants she could learn and fawn over. He tugged on her hand, pulling her forward and raising his thumb to her lips. Yuri slowly ran his thumb across her bottom lip, the slime of the frog still fresh upon them.

She kissed him…

A pure maiden really had.

Serena turned her head away, pushing his hand away. “It… it wasn’t as gross as I thought it’d be.” Though she never gave it much thought, having her first kiss be with a frog was a low she wasn’t proud to share – even if the frog turned out to be a prince, he was still thus a frog.

He shook his head, gripping onto her chin and turning her head toward him. “Do you know… why I mentioned the maiden needed to be pure?” Serena shook her head or at least tried since the Prince held her so tight. “Well, if you weren’t… my slime would’ve killed you.”

Her eyes widened; he was venomous! She was right!

“You were the first one to…”

“To not die?!”

“-to listen. Even try.” And without missing a beat, Yuri had his arms wrapped around her, pulling her body flush against his and his cheek against hers. “Farm maiden Serena, I will give you all the gardens you want within my palace and beyond. Anything you wish.”

His arms were tight around her and he was shaking, his voice unsteady.

How long… how long had he been stuck like that? Serena gulped, returning the hug of the shaken prince. “A little excessive for a gardener, don’t you think?” She tried to lighten to mood, chuckling even.

But his hands tightened around her waist. “I wasn’t asking for a gardener. I want _you_ … a princess can tend to whatever garden she wishes.”

A princess!

“T-That’s-!”

Yuri pulled back, pushing his hands into her hair and pressing his lips against hers. A soft kiss, needy and the desperation clear. He had been lost for so long and she was the first woman to try, the first that stopped enough to listen to the frog.

Every garden had its perk and her new one would come with her very own prince.


End file.
